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There are so many beautiful, beautiful words that we have in our language that help us describe our world (also beautiful). But what we’ve done to the English language is anything but.

Not only have we butchered the spelling and grammar of our own language (while we laughably insist that non-native speakers use it properly), opting to use text speak in everything from daily conversation to essays; we’ve also ruined the actual meaning of words themselves. Here are just a few words that I will forever miss using in the way they were…Twilight

Once upon a time, this was one of my absolute favorite words. Remember what it used to mean? Any word associated with nighttime, from twilight to dusk to eclipse (oops, there’s another ruined word) that used to hold such a magical allure, reminding us of the most mysterious time of day, is now ruined forever as they have become synonymous with that damned book series. I cannot use the term in my writing without a reader immediately brining that connotation to mind, whether it’s accidental or, “Oh, she must be a Twihard!” thoughts. Alas, I miss that word.

Gay

I like two definitions of the word gay. I like that it means both joy and homosexual people, as I believe the latter deserves the former—and who wouldn’t want their identification to be associated with a word that means pure happiness? But I do not like that the word has come to mean derogatory terms, such as stupid or lame or whatever people mean when they say, “That’s sooo gay!” It drives me crazy. I always want to say, “It’s a pair of shoes, it can’t be happy.” Well, not anymore, anyway, depending on if they are leather or not. Anyway, it’s impossible for anyone over the age of eight to sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” without knowing that there will be someone some snickering over the gay yuletide.

Creamy

A word that was once used to describe a frothy coffee or a cool frozen custard treat has been mutilated by goofy slackers and the Cartoon Network. If you hear the word creamy today, do you think of a frozen treat—or do you think of some version of literal toilet humor? Yeah, it just doesn’t have its appeal to me anymore, either. Thanks a lot, Gen XYZ; you can forget the marketing term, Dairy Queen. It’s not a selling point anymore, unless it’s used on Robot Chicken.